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-- THE ARCHIVE --

SINGAPORE

Straits Times, Singapore, 16 November 2004

Family snakehead syndicate smashed

More leaders of JB's main human smuggling op jailed in Singapore

By Ben Nadarajan

A FAMILY-RUN syndicate in Johor Baru that
smuggled people from Malaysia into Singapore has
been smashed after another two of its leaders
were caught and extradited to Singapore.

A POOR DEAL: For about
$1,000, a customer would be put up in a
cheap hotel or lodging house for a few
days and then given a tyre and told to
swim to Singapore. Those who refused were
ruthlessly shoved into the sea.

They were caught in the middle of last month,
less than six months after their boss was
arrested by Malaysian police in May and handed to
the Singapore police.

Tay Sau Soon, 33, and Tay Hock Ann, 25, were
trying to revive the business left behind by Tay
Boon Hua, 45, who was convicted in June.

At least 10 immigrants, caught trying to sneak
into Singapore by sea, identified the duo as the
new masterminds behind JB's largest human
smuggling syndicate.

The men were each jailed for a year and
ordered to be caned six times.

Police Coast Guard investigating officer,
Senior Staff Sergeant June Lim, said: 'For
family-run syndicates, it isn't enough just to
catch the big boss, because the other family
members would try to resurrect the business.'

THE SYNDICATE LEADERS

Tay
Boon Hua (left), 45, the syndicate's
mastermind, who once controlled 80 per
cent of the market. Tay Sau Soon
(centre), 33, Boon Hua's younger brother
and a compulsive gambler who made big
bets. Tay Hock Ann (right), 25, Boon
Hua's son, and as unscrupulous and
ruthless as his father

Boon Hua, better known among his customers as
Ah Chai, is Hock Ann's father and Sau Soon's
eldest brother.

He controlled 80 per cent of the market and is
said to have tried to sneak at least 1,000
illegal immigrants into Singapore by sea since
1997.

He became known as the man to go to for a
'foolproof' way of sneaking into Singapore.

Following his arrest, the late-night
activities at sea came almost to a standstill.
But since July, at least 10 illegals have been
plucked out of the water.

The uncle-nephew team were behind this.

Peddling durians from the back of a vehicle
was not enough for the duo, especially since Sau
Soon was a compulsive gambler who bet heavily on
soccer matches.

They were initiated into the syndicate by Ah
Chai in 2002, when his business was booming.

Initially, the pair ran simple errands such as
buying food for the customers.

But they soon moved up the ranks to become his
right-hand men, arranging for customers'
accommodation at cheap hotels or lodging houses
and driving them to the beaches where they would
start their swim to Singapore.

When Ah Chai was arrested, Sau Soon and Hock
Ann went into hiding. But once the storm died
down, they started using Ah Chai's reputation and
their own contacts.

Their business strategy was as unscrupulous as
Ah Chai's.

Charging about $1,000 a customer, they would
house them in a cheap hotel or lodging house for
a few days.

Then, in the middle of the night, they would
take the group to a kampung or beach, hand them
tyres and ask them to swim towards Singapore.
Those who refused were ruthlessly shoved into the
sea.

The Singapore police gave their Malaysian
counterparts vital information provided by the
illegals, such as the duo's contact details and
places they usually conducted their activities.

They were arrested in their semi-detached
house in Permas Jaya. Three other alleged
syndicate runners were also picked up by the
Malaysian police.

With these two 'snakeheads' - Chinese jargon
for people smugglers - held in Singapore, the
Police Coast Guard's chief investigating officer
Chong Choo Ha is optimistic the number of illegal
immigrants by sea will drop sharply.

'The snakeheads thought they were beyond our
reach. But they now know we have ways to get
them,' he said.

Straits Times, Singapore, 24 November 2004

Serial rapist attacked pregnant woman

He also took nude photos of her and threatened to scar her with 'acid'

By Elena Chong

SHE was early for work and after sorting the
papers on her boss' desk, she went to the toilet
at about 8.40am.

Already in jail: Suresh Nair was given 16 years' jail and 16 strokes for his latest sentence.

The place was empty. But when she opened the
door of her cubicle to leave, the 22-year-old was
stunned to see a man blocking her way.

Suresh Nair Vellayutham shoved her back in and
for the next hour, he raped, molested and
photographed her in the nude.

To keep her quiet, the 29-year-old Malaysian
used a toy pistol and a knife to strike terror in
her. He also threatened to scar her face with a
bottle of liquid he said was acid.

Her ordeal did not end even when she told him
she was pregnant. He said he did not believe her.

ASSAULTED
TWO OTHER WOMEN IN HOTEL

IN
THE hotel incident, Suresh Nair
Vellayutham was arrested after a vital
clue left behind in the hotel room -
where a flight stewardess was raped and
her colleague molested - led the police
to his girlfriend.

He left a memory
card for a digital camera, which had
photographs of his girlfriend, in the
hotel room.

The police traced his girlfriend, who
was shown wearing the uniform of another
airline where she worked, to her HDB home
in Tampines.

The memory card was part of the
'damning evidence' submitted by the
prosecution during his trial last year.

His fingerprints were also found in
the hotel room.

Suresh Nair had followed the two women
into the hotel lift, and got out with
them on the 16th floor, after they had
checked into the hotel with their flight
crew on April 8 last year.

As the women were moving their luggage
into the room, he came up from behind
with a toy pistol and forced them into
the room.

He then sexually assaulted the women.

And to continue the torment, Suresh Nair
threatened to publish the lewd pictures on the
Internet if she made a police report.

But by the end of the day, the mother-to-be
was overwrought and told a colleague. That was on
March 21 last year.

Yesterday, the serial rapist, already caned 24
times and serving a 26-year jail term for raping
a foreign flight attendant and molesting her
colleague in their hotel room last year, was sentenced to 16 years in jail.
It took effect yesterday. Justice Woo Bih Li also
gave him another 16 strokes of the cane.

Suresh Nair, who has an advanced diploma in
computer studies, pleaded guilty to committing
aggravated rape in a Cantonment Road building and
to two other charges. Three other charges were
taken into consideration.

These charges had been levelled against him
last year, when he was accused of attacking the
two stewardesses 18 days after his crime against
the pregnant woman.

However, he refused the prosecutor's offer to
take them into consideration, protesting his
innocence.

Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo
gave vivid details of how Suresh Nair terrorised
the woman into kissing him and performing
sexually humiliating acts.

He pointed a toy pistol at her left temple and
when she struggled, he fished out a kitchen knife
from his black sling bag and held it to her neck.
Terrified for her life, she stopped screaming.

Suresh Nair then took out a water bottle with
some liquid and a white powdery substance
floating on it. He threatened to throw the 'acid'
on her face if she screamed again. Fearing he
might do it, she did not scream or retaliate
anymore.

After taking out a digital camera from a
pouch, he told her in English that he wanted to
have sex with her. But when some people entered
the toilet, he whispered to her to pretend she
was having a conversation on a mobile phone.

A while later, her assistant manager called
out her name and asked if she was feeling all
right. She did as she was told by Suresh Nair and
said she was not feeling well.

When the assistant manager left, he
photographed her in various stages of undress. It
was then that she said she was pregnant.

After raping her, he forced her to perform
further lewd acts on him. He then apologised to
her and told her to dress up and remain in the
cubicle for 15 minutes longer.

A tip-off led to his arrest at the void deck
of an HDB block in Tampines on April 11 last
year. He led police to his girlfriend's home,
where they found his bag and the 'weapons' he had
used.

Yesterday, the victim sat sombrely as DDP Khoo
described the attack. She did not stay for the
sentencing.

Straits Times, Singapore, 27 November 2004

Family's 14-year saga of rape and incest ends

Granddad assaulted daughter and later 2 granddaughters, as
did their stepdad

By Elena Chong

OVER two separate courts, details emerged yesterday of a
tragic saga of rape and incest, spanning 14 years and endured by
a woman and her two mentally retarded daughters.

At the end of it, the woman's father and her second husband
drew long prison terms, as well as, in the husband's case, 24
strokes of the cane.

Yet, it was the twisted behaviour of the older man, spared the
rod at 61, that had gone on longer.

Some 14 years ago, in March 1990, he had raped his 18-year-old
daughter when she was just one month married: After a drink too
many, he had forced himself on her in her bedroom.

Following this, for a year and a half, father and daughter
would have consensual sex at least once a month until she was
four or five months' pregnant, in October 1991.

She went on to give birth to two girls, in March 1992 and
March 1993, whose IQ was found by a child psychiatrist to be in
the moderate to mild-moderate mental retardation range.

But the old man had not mellowed.

Ten years on, in 2002, he decided he 'wanted to experience sex
with a virgin' - as Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Kah Wei put it
yesterday - and bore down on the older girl.

Between June and July that year, he tried to rape the then
10-year-old, then settled for making her perform oral sex on him.

He raped her in November 2002 and January last year.

Yesterday, DPP Chong called for a 'substantial' jail term,
saying the man had abused his positions of trust to satisfy 'his
vile urges'.

'The offences which the accused has committed against his
daughter and granddaughter, his own flesh and blood, are so
depraved and aggravating that they completely overshadow and
outweigh any mitigating factors in this case.'

And yet he was not the only man forcing himself on his
granddaughter.

The girls' mother had divorced in 1994, after her husband
discovered her naked with her own father.

She married another man two years later, in September 1996,
with whom she had two sons.

It was this 44-year-old man who now preyed on his two
stepdaughters.

When the older girl turned 11 - already violated by her
grandfather - her stepdad raped her in March last year.

Then, in June or July last year, as the two sisters were lying
beside him and watching television, he forced the older girl to
perform oral sex on him.

Then, after raping her, he outraged the modesty of the younger
girl, then 10, who had giggled when she saw what was going on.

It was not yet over.

In Jan 16 this year, the stepfather again raped his
stepdaughter and had her perform oral sex on him.

Addressing the court on sentence, DPP Ravneet Kaur noted how
the stepfather had committed at least 27 sexual acts, over almost
a year, against the victims - who were abused so often they
stopped resisting his advances.

'It is abhorrent, the manner in which the accused treated the
victims like playthings at his disposal,' she said.

The offences came to light after an aunt asked the older girl
why she was scratching her private parts.

The truth came tumbling out and the horrified aunt called the
girls' father. The whole 14-year saga was eventually unravelled
by police investigators.

Yesterday, in their respective courtrooms, both men pleaded
for leniency, saying they were sole breadwinners.

The bespectacled grandfather said that his own flesh and blood
now looked down on him. He claimed he was 'not in the right state
of mind' when he committed the offences and begged for
forgiveness.

Justice Choo Han Teck jailed him for 22 years.

In a courtroom one storey above, the stepfather - of medium
build and clad in yellow T-shirt and light-brown trousers -
received a 32-year sentence and 24 strokes of the cane from
Justice Tay Yong Kwang.